“I am thrilled to join the 2013 class of National Geographic
Emerging Explorers,” stated Jenkins. “Such recognition would not be possible
without the supportive environment of Brown CS to truly explore new areas of
research beyond common conventions. My
hope is that Human-Robot Interaction will have the same level of impact on the
world that computing has had in recent decades, thanks in part to foundational
work by several of my colleagues in Brown CS.”

Professor Jenkins earned recognition for his work in robot
learning - training robots to learn from human demonstrations. His research
group collects data from these demonstrations and creates algorithms that allow
robots to draw from prior experience when faced with a new environment. Professor
Jenkins envisions a future where robots will be widely accessible and will help
society be productive in industry as well as daily life.